LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Natural resource development company Red Rock updated the market in relation to its investment in the ASX-listed Jupiter Mines on Wednesday, reporting that over recent weeks, it had disposed of a "substantial part" of its remaining holding in Jupiter through market sales at an average price of 30.4 Australian cents per Jupiter share, for proceeds of AUD 2.33m (£1.24m).
The AIM-traded firm retained 5,870,693 Jupiter shares, with the current share price of Jupiter standing at 22.5 Australian cents, or 26% below the average price of Red Rock's recent sales.

Chairman Andrew Bell said the company's ability to raise, over a short period, a sum of more than £1m from iots share portfolio, demonstrated the company's ability to respond to events and to strengthen its liquidity from internal sources as required.

"We manage our investments actively and having formed the view that prospects in the near-term for Jupiter had deteriorated, were able to reduce our holdings in amounts and at prices that did not appear to affect the price in the market," Bell said.

"Our history with this investment goes back a long way: shortly after listing in 2005 we sold iron ore assets to Jupiter in exchange for cash, shares and a royalty, and later increased our holding to become the largest Jupiter shareholder, bringing in Pallinghurst Partners as our partner and subsequently seeing the injection into Jupiter of the Pallinghurst manganese assets in South Africa, that now after the spin off of the iron ore into Juno Minerals are the sole significant asset of Jupiter."

Andrew Bell said Jupiter had been an "exceptionally well-managed" company, achieving a near-30% annual return on assets in recent year, but added that the recent consolidation of shareholdings into fewer hands and the likelihood of management changes, combined with a "dull outlook" for manganese prices, convinced the firm that the time was right to accelerate the disposal of its stake.

"Red Rock retains other listed holdings, or holdings in companies approaching listing, in businesses where it has played a strategic role, including 45 million shares valued in the market at over £0.9m in Power Metal Resources."

At 1045 BST, shares in Red Rock Resources were down 3.91% at 0.55p.

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